


The Perfect Timeline

by emeraldgirl503



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, with just a smidge of angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-18
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-13 16:48:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29529408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emeraldgirl503/pseuds/emeraldgirl503
Summary: “Hey Jack?” Sam asked as the sun disappeared below the horizon.“Mm?”“Do you think the parallel universe versions of us are happier than we are?”
Relationships: Samantha "Sam" Carter/Jack O'Neill
Comments: 7
Kudos: 71





	The Perfect Timeline

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to just be a really light, short, fluffy fic about Sam and Jack discussing alternate timelines, but then it was 3 AM and this had happened. It's still like 98% fluff though.
> 
> Also, I know nothing about physics/quantum mechanics so I apologize for any inaccuracies in the random jargon I threw in here. I just pulled random lingo from a Google search about parallel universes.

On the rare occasions that young Samantha Carter daydreamed about her romantic future, she had never really pictured romantic dates or elaborate romantic comedy-level gestures of love. It was always the simple domestic things that gave her warm fuzzies: casual kisses of greeting upon arriving home after a long day of work, holding hands as they navigated the aisles of the grocery store debating meal plans for the week, or sharing lazy Sundays cuddled in bed or on the couch, exchanging soft smiles as they passed newspaper sections back and forth. However, young Samantha Carter had never imagined she’d be married to a busy Air Force general, leading a team of planet-hopping explorers throughout the galaxy. Most days, Sam was quite happy with how her life had turned out, but sometimes she found herself wishing for the simplicity of her childhood daydreams. Especially when she had been on back-to-back missions across the galaxy for over a month, while her husband had been Earth-side running the SGC and jetting back and forth to Washington for meetings at the Pentagon. There was no private communication through the Stargate, and on base, Sam and Jack erred on the side of discretion and kept their relationship strictly professional (except for that one time Teal’c had caught them slinking out of a supply closet, but he already knew about their relationship anyway).

So when Sam realized she and her husband’s schedules had magically aligned for one whole blissful, unplanned day off together, she was determined to have the lazy Sunday of her dreams. Even if it was on a Thursday. 

The day had started off perfectly. They had woken up late and spent a long time in bed, exchanging tender kisses and leisurely exploring each other’s bodies. When their growling stomachs had finally forced them to get up, Jack padded down the hallway to start the coffee while Sam took a quick shower. Now they sat across from each other at the kitchen table, Sam’s sock-covered feet slotted between her husband’s bare ones. Sam was absorbed in some recent journal articles on quantum mechanics, while Jack had the newspaper carefully propped up, ostensibly deep in concentration. Sam suspected he was actually just skimming the comics and using the paper to hide whatever ridiculously sugary cereal he was eating, since that had become a point of contention of late. (“You’re over half a century old, Jack. Maybe it’s time to cut back on the Cocoa Puffs and eat something with some nutritional value?” “Carter, if I wanted some dry, flavorless meal for breakfast, I would save us the money and just eat the cardboard boxes your granola comes in.”)

Sam was completely engrossed in her article and didn’t notice Jack had moved until he pressed a kiss to the top of her head as he collected her now-empty bowl and coffee cup. “I’m probably going to regret this question, but what’s got you so fascinated?” he asked when she was startled at his presence.

“Oh, just an article in the  _ Journal of Theoretical Physics _ . The author has a really unique perspective on quantum mechanics and the ways that recent advances in particle physics and cosmology could be used to support the idea of an infinitely expanding multiverse, and how subtle differences in the basic foundations of physical laws and constants could --” Sam broke off as her husband turned from setting their breakfast dishes in the sink and gave her a look, that familiar combination of confusion, amusement, and affection that he always gave her when she started off on a tangent about something he didn’t understand. She grinned. “Basically it’s just arguing that parallel universes exist.”

“Well, of course they do,” Jack said, pushing away from the counter to stand by her chair. “I’ve been to some of them.”

Sam smirked at him and stood to follow him to the living room. “Yes, Jack, but most people haven’t stumbled across strange alien technology like the Quantum Mirror, so it’s still a contentious topic among the physics community.”

“You know, Carter, if you ever published even a fraction of the things you’ve experienced and learned over the last decade or so, the physics community would probably lose their minds,” Jack offered as he stretched out comfortably on their oversized couch. 

Sam chuckled as she settled next to her husband. “More likely they’d just think  _ I  _ had lost  _ my  _ mind.”

Jack wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close. “Haven’t we all at this point? I think it’s basically a requirement for working at SGC.”

Sam laughed. “I think you’re probably right about that.”

Jack smiled and tousled her hair playfully. “Luckily for you, I’ve got a thing for crazy women.”

“Is that just because they’re your only option?” Sam teased.

Jack tucked his head to glare at her. “Are you saying that only crazy people would go for me?”

Sam shrugged. “If the shoe fits…”

Jack shifted his hand to run his fingers along the ticklish spot on her side. Sam yelped in laughter as she flinched away, burying her face against his chest. Moving his arm back to her hip, Jack planted a kiss in her hair as he idly picked up the remote. “Want to watch something?”

Sam turned her head to rest her cheek against his chest. “Sure. Whatever you want.”

“Oh, you’re going to regret saying that, Carter,” Jack said ominously, tightening his arm around her.

Ultimately Jack’s threat was completely meaningless. After flipping channels for a few minutes, he found a marathon of old  _ Man vs. Wild  _ episodes. He spent the next few hours scoffing at the TV and heckling Bear Grylls, much to Sam’s amusement. As the afternoon faded into evening, Sam got up to grab them some beers and Jack called in an order to their favorite pizza place. They settled on the back deck, watching the sun set over the mountains, hands laced together between their lounge chairs.

“Hey Jack?” Sam asked as the sun disappeared below the horizon.

“Mm?”

“Do you think the parallel universe versions of us are happier than we are?”

Jack froze with his beer halfway to his mouth. “Why would I think that?”

“It’s just that… well, in both of the alternate realities we’ve encountered, I never joined the Air Force, so you and I were able to acknowledge our feelings for each other a lot earlier.”

“Yeah, but in one of those realities I was dead, and in the other the Goa’uld were basically taking over the planet, so I don’t think things were all that great for those versions of us. Unless you’re saying you’d prefer if I were dead, which seems a bit dramatic, Carter.”

She laughed. “You know that’s not what I meant.” Sam took a long pull of her beer. “But if there are infinite possible universes, surely there are some where we got together earlier  _ and _ weren’t destroyed by the Goa’uld.”

Jack shifted in his chair to face her more fully. “Carter, what’s this really about?” he asked softly.

Feeling slightly exposed by her husband’s knowing gaze, Sam looked away. “Sometimes I just wonder… if I hadn’t joined the Air Force and we had met at the SGC without the chain of command issues, our lives could have been very different. We could have gotten married a long time ago, maybe had a couple of kids…”

“Do you want kids?” Jack probed gently.

Sam shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve just been thinking a lot about how I pictured my life when I was younger, and while I’m mostly happy with where I’m at, I always pictured myself having more of a life outside of my career. I mean, things have definitely gotten better in the last few years --” she smiled softly at her husband and squeezed his hand “-- but I can’t help but wonder if I let too much of my life pass me by because of military regulations.”

“It’s not too late to have kids, Sam,” Jack said hesitantly.

“I’m almost 40, Jack.”

“So?”

“So… those of us who can get pregnant have much more of a time limit on that. And 40’s pushing that limit.”

Jack nudged her legs so he could settle on the bottom of her lounge chair. “It’s on the older side, sure, but it’s certainly not unheard of. Lots of women get pregnant in their 40s.”

“Yeah, but how many of those women have spent a decade or so of their reproductive years traveling to foreign planets and being exposed to who even knows what?” Sam could feel her eyes getting watery and tried to blink back her tears.

“Sam,” he said gently, cupping her face with one hand. “If you want to be a mother, there are plenty of ways to make that happen. There are all sorts of resources to help couples conceive, and you know I’m not averse to having lots of sex.” Sam chuckled half-heartedly. “And even if you can’t get pregnant, there are other options. There’s adoption, or surrogacy, or hell, I’m sure there are alien species somewhere who have come up with something we can’t even begin to imagine. If it’s important to you, I can dedicate an entire SG team to finding reproductive technology.”

Sam let out a wet laugh. “That would be a  _ massive  _ abuse of your power, General O’Neill.”

“Psh,” Jack replied, waving his hand dismissively. “When have I ever given a crap about that kind of stuff?”

Sam looked at him pointedly. “Well, there were those 8 years we didn’t act on our feelings because chain of command…”

“That was different,” he said. “That would have had negative consequences for you and your career. I wasn’t going to jeopardize that. My career, on the other hand…” He made a raspberry sound with his mouth. “Not important. If having kids is something you want, we’ll find a way to make it happen.”

“Do you want kids?” she asked tentatively, a heartbreakingly insecure look on her face.

“I don’t care either way,” Jack replied. When Sam’s eyes clouded with hurt, he cursed under his breath. “That came out wrong. Sam, I want you to be happy. If you want to have kids, I’d love nothing more than to raise a whole flock of mini-Carters. If you don’t want to have kids, I’d be just as happy spending the rest of my life giving you my undivided attention. If you want to retire to Peru and start an alpaca farm, I’ll buy some books on alpacas and make Daniel teach me Spanish.” Sam laughed through her tears again, though the tears were no longer tears of sadness. “My point is, Sam, as long as I have you, I’m as happy as any O’Neill in any timeline could possibly be. Hell, I’d go even as far to say happier, because we’re both alive and not enslaved by the Goa’uld, which is far from a guarantee in those other universes. I have everything I want already. Anything else is a bonus.”

Sam lunged forward in her chair to wrap her arms around her husband. “I love you,” she whispered fiercely.

“I love you too,” he murmured, tipping her face up to give her a deep kiss.

They stayed wrapped in each other’s arms until the last light of dusk had faded and the stars started to peek out in the night sky. When Sam shivered in the crisp nighttime air, Jack stood and led them back into the house and down the hall to their bedroom. He undressed her slowly, reverently, worshipping every part of her body as he uncovered it. Sam took her time to do the same, using every press of her lips against his skin to convey her love in ways she could never do in words. 

It wasn’t until much later, when they were cuddled up in the hazy afterglow of their lovemaking, that Sam realized she needed to clarify something. “You know I’m really happy with you, right?”

Jack tightened his arms around his wife. “Of course you are. How could you not be?”

Sam lifted her head and swatted his arm. “I’m trying to be sentimental here.”

Jack’s lips twisted in amusement. “By all means, continue.”

Sam smirked at her husband’s smug expression. Then she sobered. “Seriously, though, Jack. It’s important to me that you know that.”

Jack’s face softened. “I do know that.”

“Good. Because while this may not be the happily ever after suburban fantasy life that I imagined as a kid, with lazy Sundays in bed and 2.2 kids and a dog, I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I wouldn’t trade  _ you  _ for anything.”

“That’s probably for the best. I’m not sure a guy my age is worth much in trade-in value,” Jack replied dryly.

Sam shook her head and laughed. “I should have known you couldn’t be serious for more than 30 seconds at a time.”

Jack shrugged, looking completely nonplussed. “You love me anyway.”

Sam leaned up to give him a tender kiss. “Yes, I do.” She settled back down against his side, her head nestled on his chest so she could hear the soothing, steady sound of his heartbeat. Jack’s hand stroked gently along her spine, and she hummed contentedly.

After a few minutes, Jack broke the comfortable silence. “I could take or leave the 2.2 kids, but I do like the lazy Sundays in bed. Or Thursdays, as the case may be.”

“Me too,” Sam murmured, pressing a kiss to her husband’s chest. “We should try to have them more often.”

He made a soft noise of agreement. “Now, about that dog…”

Sam laughed quietly and rolled her eyes. “If you want a dog, we can get a dog, Jack. You’re the one who would be stuck taking care of it most of the time.”

“Yessss,” Jack hissed in excitement, like a kid who just convinced their parents to let them open their Christmas presents early. Then he kissed the top of her head before reaching out to turn off the light. “I bet the other O’Neills in those parallel universes are going to be so jealous when they find out I get to have a dog  _ and  _ a Carter.”

Sam grinned. “If we find another Quantum Mirror, you can go rub it in their faces.”

“Mm. On second thought, I don’t want to risk it. That Quantum Mirror thing gets messy and things never go according to plan. I think I’ll just stick with this universe. It’s pretty perfect from my perspective.”

Sam stretched up to give him a quick kiss. “Mine, too.”

**Author's Note:**

> As always, thanks for reading, and comments/suggestions/criticisms are always welcome!


End file.
